The quiet ones.
I have been thinking a lot lately of silent protagonists ever since that article about Samus Aran over at Kotaku. You know, the one where Ian Walker tries to make a case that Samus doesn’t cry when she’s supposed to. And then I tried to make a compelling counter-argument over twitter.
It’s still stuck into my mind to this day, because I think in a modern age in which we seem to care a little too much about the lives of fictional characters, the protagonists that are usually silent, never get seen for their strengths.
Spoilers: the strength of them is you.
There’s a legacy to this with Nintendo games. Samus, Link and to an extent Mario (nevermind the itsa-mes and lets-gos), never speak because the company seems adamant on having the character be the vessel for you, the player. Your perspective, whether subconscious on not, get projected onto the character and your emotional investment is based solely on how you feel even if your character you’re controlling isn’t emoting like you. (There’s a better argument for silent protagonists in First Person games, because it’s built around your perspective anyway.)
Pictured: Idiot boy that nobody likes.
I find it funny when someone says “(This silent protagonist) is a boring character,” for the reason is pretty simple. It’s possible you yourself could be boring. I’m not here to tell you that you’re boring. It’s possible you’re a fun person to be around, but that’s something to look at yourself. Who am I to judge how a person lives their life or plays their video games.
So let’s say that the modern audience just can’t connect with silent protagonists anymore. Well, what if we gave the typical silent protagonist a voice, but still treat them as a vessel to the player? An example of that I always think about is Vaan from Final Fantasy XII. I remember once getting into a heated discussion about it, because a small group of people were claiming that Vaan was a completely useless character. That very well may be, because he isn’t crucial to the story. There’s a lot of key players in FFXII and Vaan wasn’t really one of them.
Yatsumi Matsuno, the creator of the game, intended Vaan (and even Penelo) to be “avatar characters” which are there to sit on the backburner and learn about the game with you. Essentially you are Vaan, in this scenario. I would guess nobody really likes Vaan cause he says a lot of ignorant things. But it’s only because he doesn’t know any better, and neither would you on your first playthrough.
There are characters that do a much better job of this though. Commander Shepard of the Mass Effect games comes to mind as an avatar character that put every bit of you into the decision making while also being their own person. Probably even does it a little too well, as you could end up being very emotionally invested in your characters relationships with your crewmates over the span of three games.
(I distinctly remember shutting the game off and having a cold shower when I watched Tali die. I was so devastated by the outcome I had to do it again so she could live.)
I'm not really trying to have a point here, I know these are just rambling thoughts. It’s just, my understanding of how the silent protagonist is utilized makes me find it funny when someone goes out of their way to be upset that the character isn’t reacting the way they should. It’s less about them, and more about you. How do you feel? If you’re upset that the character you’re playing as is boring or doesn’t emote like they should, then what is that saying about you?
A lot of the time these are just power fantasies anyway.
On the subject of Nintendo: As a fun sidenote, it would be interesting to have a discussion about the problem of playing as Zelda instead of Link, in the game of her namesake. While I agree would be outstanding, Nintendo would be in the position of not really having anything for link, on account of him being an empty husk for the player to control for 35 years. Maybe they could switch it around so Link talks and Zelda doesn’t and they could call it something like ‘The Folk Tale of Link: The Princess’s Quest’.